IntraNet iMTS, operating on the UNIX AIX standard, enhances the Bank's capabilities to process domestic and international wholesale electronic payments in a real-time environment.

Leveraging several of the new features unique to iMTS including options for customization to meet the Bank's specific messaging and reporting needs, LaSalle is now able to scale its broad domestic and international wholesale payment processing operations.

Following an extensive review process, LaSalle chose IntraNet as its wholesale payments processing technology partner. For the implementation, only iMTS offered the flexibility and degree of customization LaSalle required, including new reporting processes and messaging.

"IntraNet went the extra mile during our implementation of iMTS, and proved how the application's modular components could support our wide-ranging needs with its unmatched features and functionality. From a payments processing perspective, iMTS' robust capabilities have enabled our Chicago operation, with its significant payment volumes, to achieve improved straight-through processing rates," said Mary Miles-Carlson, group senior vice president of wire operations for LaSalle Bank. "We are very encouraged by the initial rollout of the iMTS application, and are confident that it will deliver on our overall straight-through processing performance and cost-of-processing goals."

Designed to meet the varied payment processing needs of the wholesale banking industries worldwide, iMTS moves money, settles multiple currencies, and streamlines operations for 21 of the top 100 global banks and 21 of the top 50 U.S. banks. LaSalle Bank selected iMTS as the best of breed solution for integrating the latest industry standards into its wholesale payments and messaging capability, as supported by SWIFT, the global financial industry co-operative which provides secure, standardized messaging services and interface software. With iMTS, LaSalle expects to realize immediate benefits, including cost-per-transaction savings and streamlined high-value processing operations. With the successful rollout of iMTS, the Bank is well positioned to take advantage of future growth in its electronic payments processing service for corporate clients.

"Once again, IntraNet has proved it can meet the challenge in a competitive setting where other payment solutions are evaluated, and has demonstrated that our technology can support and adapt to complex and challenging architectures within the wholesale payments processing environment," said Dennis D. Jorgensen, president and CEO of IntraNet Worldwide. "IntraNet is very pleased to have delivered a solution that supports this critical core-banking need for LaSalle in Chicago and one that can easily scale to wider deployment. We look forward to delivering on those growing requirements and continuing this partnership with LaSalle."